Scenes From the Life of an Outcast
by Madeleine Toleri
Summary: Scenes from the life of Severus Snape starting from his 5th year. Realistic, canon, in character, not fluff. Interesting, angsty, well written and amusing. At least, I think so. This is advertisement, after all. SSLE, LEJP
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:**This disclaimer will apply to all chapters of this story. Characters, names, story-line, etc... all belongs to J.K. Rowling and the various companies who own the rights of publication. Whatever there is in this story that may belong to me I bequeath to J.K. Rowling, and J.K. Rowling alone.  
**Author's Note:** This is the first scene from a series of 10 or so. The first scene takes place directly after the events of "Snape's Worst Memory"(GoF, Ch. 28) in late spring of 1976. That is Snape, Lily, and the Marauders' 5th year. Spoilers for all HP books to be expected.

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**Scenes From the Life of an Outcast**

**Scene 1**

**_Wrath Like a Woman Scorned_**

Furious at the world, Lily stormed off towards the castle. As she stomped along she sputtered random words and sentence fragments. "I can't believe... 'Mudblood'... Bloody gits! All of them!" Even Remus, she thought, he was a prefect after all. He could have done something.

She couldn't stand injustice and cruelty. She couldn't stand to see anyone or anything suffer. Not even that detestable greasy Slytherin who was probably on his way to becoming a Death Eater. More than anything, she hated cruel people. James Potter, that cruel arrogant bastard. Oh how she hated him! Her fury had at least been directed somewhere while she was yelling at James. She had been so angry. And then, when she was so close to victory, Snape had to interfere. Idiot. Calling her a… you-know-what. Couldn't he see that he was just making it worse? Ungrateful Slytherin scum. He couldn't put his mindless hatred aside even to save himself.

A flash of light appeared in the edge of her vision and she stopped dead in her tracks. Tensing, she wondered if she should go back. He didn't deserve her help. Then again, he didn't deserve punishment from James, that despicable hypocrite. She heard a yell. "Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?"

With a scream of frustration, she made her decision. She whirled around and charged back across the lawn. "**EXPELLIARMUS!**" she shrieked, and watched in watched in utmost satisfaction as James was flung flat on his back and his wand went flying. She felt slightly guilty as Snape, released from the spell holding him up in the air, fell yet again in a crumpled heap on the grass, but told herself that he deserved **_that_** at least. Lily kept her wand trained on a flabbergasted James and gave a satisfied smirk at the sight of Sirius gaping at her, paralyzed in shock. "To hell with principle," she thought as she hexed James with an obscure spell that caused his hair and eyebrows to 'fro out and turn a hideous fluorescent shade of pink.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Lily jerked her head to the side in surprise to see Snape struggling to his feet, his wand now in his hand and pointing waveringly at Sirius. He curled his lip back in a snarl as he flicked the tip of his wand in some sort of non-verbal curse. Sirius, still petrified, broke out in large boils visible all over his pretty face.

"Miss Evans! Mr. Snape!" Lily jumped in guilty surprise as her gleeful elation began to fade into something resembling dread. Minerva McGonagall was approaching rapidly from the direction of the castle, her disapproving gaze fixed firmly on Lily and Severus Snape. "What happened here?" she demanded. Lily looked guilty, yet resolute. "He deserved it, Professor." Snape simply glared in silence at everyone. James and Sirius (who had been released from the body bind) merely stared at the ground looking sullen and slightly ashamed. Professor McGonagall now looked yet even more disapproving, if such a thing was possible. "Well if no one is going to tell me what happened, I will be forced to make a judgement!" No one spoke. "Very well then. Fifty points will be taken from both your houses, and you two," she gestured towards Lily and Snape, "will be serving detention every night for the remainder of the term with Professor Slughorn. Now let's get these two off to see Madam Pomfrey immediately." She marched off with James and Sirius, Peter trailing anxiously behind.

The crowd began to disperse and Snape, looking very angry indeed, stalked off, refusing to meet Lily's gaze. Lily sighed. So she'd be spending all her remaining evenings in detention. And with Snape none-the-less. Still, it was worth it. If she hadn't confronted James, all those emotions building up inside would probably make her blow up… or something… She wondered idly that if such an intense burst of emotion was left untapped, would it result in some sort of uncontrolled wandless magic? Anyways, now that she'd taken her anger out on James she did feel a lot better. The O.W.L.s were over, it was a gorgeous late spring day, and detention wouldn't start until after dinner. She took a deep breath and smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER:** See first chapter for disclaimer.

**Author's Note:** This is the second scene from a series of 10 or so. This scene takes place during detention a couple of days after the previous scene, in late spring of 1976. That is Snape, Lily, and the Marauders' 5th year. Spoilers for all HP books to be expected.

**Scenes From the Life of an Outcast**

**Scene 2**

_**An Awkward Apology**_

It was the third night of their detention, and Severus Snape was staring with morbid fascination and the red-headed figure of Lily Evans. She was sitting across from him, busily slicing up a sopophorous bean. And she was humming. How utterly repulsive. It was bad enough that he had to endure her presence. She didn't have to make horrendous noises as well.

He opened his mouth to say just that, but then shut it abruptly as he remembered that they weren't speaking to each other. Lily had tried a little at first, but when he refused to answer her, she had frowned at him angrily and joined him in an unspoken vow of silence. Severus was quite content with silence, and it made him secretly quite pleased to have irritated Lily. Unfortunately, his ingenious plot had backfired somewhat.

Horace Slughorn, their Potions professor, had been delighted to find that he had at his disposal his top two Potions students and had given them the task of making some of the less complex potions which were needed to restock the stores of the hospital wing. To Severus' dismay, this meant that he now had to work quite closely with the Evans girl, and since they weren't speaking, he was forced to watch her closely to ensure that all the steps were completed, and in the right order. Adding twice the correct amount of lacewings to a potion would definitely ruin it.

Lily finished cutting the bean and raised her head to look at him. Merlin. He had forgotten to look away again. He cursed himself as his bemused expression quickly snapped into a scowl. Lily frowned, looking annoyed. "Come on, Snape! Just give it up!" He scowled even more ferociously. Looking quite disgusted, Lily sighed. "I'm willing to ignore the fact that you called me a Mudblood, if you will overlook the fact that I tried to help you."

He looked away without speaking. "We're going to be stuck here for the rest of the term. We might as well be civil. We'd get a lot more done," Lily said. Well, he supposed it would be a lot easier. But he'd make her regret it! Having come to a decision, Severus turned on his heel and stalked over to the cabinet to get some more sopophorous beans. " Fine, Evans. But don't expect me to be nice to you. And no more of that… caterwauling noise. " Lily giggled involuntarily and clapped a hand over her mouth.. What the hell! Did she think this was funny?

Severus glowered into the cabinet as he yanked a package of sopophorous beans down from the top shelf, knocking a jar over and sending some unknown substance cascading onto his head and shoulders and splashing all over the floor. Blast, he thought. Lily leapt to her feet, her wand pointing at him. "Scourgify! Aguamenti!"

He stood there, dripping and soapy, spluttering in indignation. "What the hell are you doing, Evans!" Lily stared at him with a concerned look on her face. "Are you okay?" She came over to him. "Look," she said, and pointed to the floor/ The mystery substance was sitting in a greasy pool on the stone floor and it was starting to bubble and smoke. "Argh!" Horrified, Severus quickly slapped a hand to his face to ensure it was still there. "Hold on, I'd better make sure we got all that off. Take your robe off," Lily said. "What!" "It's covered with that smoking stuff." He glared at her. "Come on!" He removed his outer robe and stood there in his black shirt and trousers, soaking wet and shivering, with his arms folded obstinately over his chest. Why him? It was always him! Why was he always getting humiliated?

"Now, make sure you scrub it all out of your hair!" Severus opened his mouth to protest, only to be silenced by the jet of water she directed at him. Lily continued to assault him with soap and water until she appeared satisfied and pronounced him clean. She then performed a drying charm on him.

No longer wet, but still just as miserable, Severus refused to look at Lily. She came up to him and reached her hand up toward his face. He jerked his head to the side. "I'm not going to hurt you, Snape! I'm just checking to see if we got rid of it all." Her cool fingers touched his face and brushed gently against his hair. The corners of Lily's mouth twitched upwards, and she looked suspiciously amused. "You know, Snape, you should consider showering more often. You hair is quite gorgeous like this, really."

He was mortified, but couldn't seem to find any words to express his indignation. What was worse, he realized that he was quite fascinated with the sensation that her hand on his face had produced. And he still couldn't look away from those big emerald-green eyes that made him feel guilty and defensive and vulnerable and very intrigued all at the same time.

Feeling slightly hypnotized, Severus finally looked at the floor and mumbled something under his breath. "What?" He looked at the wall. "I'm sorry." Lily's eyebrows shot up in surprise as she stared at him incredulously. "You're sorry?" Still determinedly staring at the wall, he said, in a voice scarcely louder than a whisper , "For calling you a Mudblood." "Oh…" Lily looked a bit unsettled. "It's all right… I - I'm sorry for calling you Snivellus," she said as she turned slightly red. "Um, well, let me go find Professor Slughorn." She turned and virtually fled the room.

Severus stood there, confused. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He really was sorry for calling her a Mudblood, even if she was an interfering little chit. Well, he'd have to snap out of it, he couldn't afford to have a conscience.

Lily hurried back into the room, accompanied by Professor Slughorn, who examined the mess and commended her for her quick thinking and said cheerfully, "You have a lot to thank Miss Evans for, my boy. This could have been quite nasty indeed." Brilliant. Now he was supposed to thank her, too. This was turning out to be extraordinarily humiliating, and for once Potter didn't have anything to do with it. Severus struggled to keep a pleasant face in front of Slughorn, but the best he could manage was a sort of sickly sneer. He forced a strained "Yes" out from between his clenched teeth.

Professor Slughorn told Severus and Lily that they were free to goas heset about cleaning up.. As they left the room Lily turned toSeverus and, with a bit of a smirk, said gleefully, " I noticed that Sirius is still in the infirmary. Nice hex!" "Yes, and I see that Potter's hair is still pink. Rather impressive work… for a Gryffindor," he replied dryly. Unperturbed she said "Thanks!" and proceeded to bounce happily out of sight down the hallway. Severus watched her go.


End file.
